The Ongoing Super Mega Weather Thread v3

[zamler]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Exactly why we should improve it now before it gets to the point where we're having power failures

Are you saying the grid is not constantly maintained and updated to meet demand but somehow it is still reliable? There is some insinuation in your post, out with it say what you really mean.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

So is the internet scorn being directed at EV owners reasonable at all? Or are they no more a factor than any other random item?

Not reasonable at all, there were tweets out last night crunching numbers of all EV’s in Alberta versus if 10% of all the cars had block heaters plugged in. Wasn’t even close.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

So is the internet scorn being directed at EV owners reasonable at all? Or are they no more a factor than any other random item?

Most EV-related scorn I've seen is being directed at political entities who are mandating them as opposed to individual owners, but even if that wasn't the case it wouldn't be reasonable.

[Geraldsh]

Originally Posted by Acey

Thanks a lot for the info. I'm usually pretty good at Googling but somehow didn't find that first article.



That figure is far more than I thought, and also is coincidentally quite close to our current usage of 11,000. Yes, I do realize that harnessing all of that power would be massively expensive, environmentally destructive, equally silly to put all our eggs in the hydro basket, etc... but it is interesting to see it quanitifed.

Talk of a dam on the north Saskatchewan river east of lloydminster has been ongoing for 40 years. The nimbys have delayed implementation to the point where the cost of land has made it impossible.

[topfiverecords]

Who put ice cubes in Sliver's cornflakes this morning?

[zamler]

I HATE wind power. HATE HATE HATE it. Total eyesore on the landscape it all should be banned forever. Let's go all in on solar and grid storage supplement it with natural gas. Nuclear is never going to happen no matter how good it is no use even talking about it. Canada already has massive hydro not much work to be done there.

More people driving EVs means opportunity to use solar when available reduces the need for grid storage. Speaking of EVs how many here own one? In Calgary at least I don't see many EVs on the road.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by zamler

Are you saying the grid is not constantly maintained and updated to meet demand but somehow it is still reliable? There is some insinuation in your post, out with it say what you really mean.

Why the hostility? Out with it? I think the discussion has been pretty clear, my insinuation is exactly what we've already been talking about for the last few pages of the thread, that every MW made the difference yesterday and we need to improve the level of demand headroom. I fail to see how this is so contentious to you that you need to be a dick about it?

[zamler]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Why the hostility? Out with it? I think the discussion has been pretty clear, my insinuation is exactly what we've already been talking about for the last few pages of the thread, that every MW made the difference yesterday and we need to improve the level of demand headroom. I fail to see how this is so contentious to you that you need to be a dick about it?

Why are we going to have U.S. style outages going forward? Which is what I brought up, reliability not cost. I'd rather my power be free but I'd much rather pay more vs. having 5-10 outages per year. Which is exactly what I had in PA. Many people have generators they got sick of sitting in the dark and cold.

[81MC]

Originally Posted by Geraldsh

Talk of a dam on the north Saskatchewan river east of lloydminster has been ongoing for 40 years. The nimbys have delayed implementation to the point where the cost of land has made it impossible.

Opposing dams is not NIMBYism, for god sakes.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by zamler

Why are we going to have U.S. style outages going forward? Which is what I brought up, reliability not cost. I'd rather my power be free but I'd much rather pay more vs. having 5-10 outages per year. Which is exactly what I had in PA. Many people have generators they got sick of sitting in the dark and cold.

Alright I'm going to let you re-read the thread and then get back to me with a coherant post before I bother replying, the discussion is pretty clear so I'm not sure what you're confused and upset about

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by D as in David

I have a friend who is an executive at a large O&G company and is in charge of a project looking into developing a nuclear power facility in western Canada. He says their estimates currently are showing a 10+ year time frame and over $12B to complete a SMR facility. If they're right, nuclear is ways off from being a solution.

The current Canadian approval process does indeed mean more than 10years for a reactor facility... perhaps only the approval process, never mind the detail engineering, site prep & infrastructure (looking at you AESO), long leads, construction, and commissioning. I can't recall which country specifically, but they're apparantly looking to fast track their reactor solutions to under 5 years. By comparison how long is China taking these days to approve?


China's approving how many coal plants weekly?
https://energyandcleanair.org/public...-week-in-2022/


Nuclear varies considerably according to this link...
"On average, it took the Japanese less than 5 years to build one. In South Korea and China, less than 6 years."
https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers....struction-time

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Are outdoor thermometers affected by windchill?

Wet-bulb yes.

[Acey]

I feel like solar farms are equally ugly as the turbines, no? Slightly lower profile I guess. Calgary Energy Centre isn't much of a looker cruising by on Stoney...

Hydro dams are the only form of power generation that have the chance to be aesthetic.

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Wet-bulb yes.

I had to explain this term to some coworkers a couple days ago.


For simplicity - think of a light wind on a cold day blowing against your face. If your face is wet do you feel the cold moreso than if it's dry?

[PepsiFree]

Wind farms look fine. Regardless of anything else, picking an energy source based on how visually appealing it is, is unbelievably dumb.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Wind farms look fine. Regardless of anything else, picking an energy source based on how visually appealing it is, is unbelievably dumb.

Nonsense!

Dont you want to employ this industrious fellow! He's just trying to make a living!

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by D as in David

I have a friend who is an executive at a large O&G company and is in charge of a project looking into developing a nuclear power facility in western Canada. He says their estimates currently are showing a 10+ year time frame and over $12B to complete a SMR facility. If they're right, nuclear is ways off from being a solution.

Yeah, there's a reason why new nuclear is barely happening outside of countries with very low labor costs. If you add up all the nuclear generating capacity that's currently under construction or planned in first world countries (EU, North America, advanced economies in Asia, etc.) it's only about 35,000 MW of generating capacity. And a good chunk of that is adding reactors to existing facilities, which is obviously simpler and cheaper than building entirely new facilities. So that's a pretty good idea of the amount of nuclear capacity coming down the pipeline in industrialized countries over the next 10-15 years and it's a drop in the bucket.

Nuclear is a great solution if people are OK with much higher energy prices, but based on peoples' reaction to the carbon tax, I'm not sure that's realistic.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Locke

Nonsense!

Dont you want to employ this industrious fellow! He's just trying to make a living!

And with his daily food requirement being maybe a sandwich, think of all the savings in energy needed to feed him.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by D as in David

And with his daily food requirement being maybe a sandwich, think of all the savings in energy needed to feed him.

"Santa gives you Coal for Christmas? That Scab sonofabitch! You should say 'Thank you!'"

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Energy storage is another very interesting angle to this. The advances around batteries specifically are promising and we've seen many grids around the world add them

The problem is we need to store for a lot longer than a reasonable sized battery could ever provide. That, and we still need to charge it at a time when solar and wind are low, so you need more generation to do that.


Batteries are great for daily fluctuations but once you look at covering lulls longer than a few hours they don't do that.